Intuitive fred888: Milarepa

Friday, May 23, 2014

Milarepa

My personal experience was knowing both Milarepa and St. Francis of Assisi through reincarnation. I experience them both as the same soul. It is my experience that Padmasambhava, Merlin, Milrepa and St. Francis of Asisi and Saint Germain are all the same soul in these incarntions. However, you might have a different experience. Also, the statue of Milarepa I did not see because at the time I didn't know about the connection between Milarepa and Helambu Valley when I trekked through Helambu Valley and up 10,000 feet into the mountains there at the time in early 1986 with my family. My kids were 10 to 14 then and pretty good hikers then even with a backpack. The 4 months in India and Nepal then really permanently changed all our lives and made us all citizens of the world.

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Milarepa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Milarepa (disambiguation).

A statue of Jetsun Milarepa from the Milarepa Gompa, Helambu valley, Hyolmo, Nepal.

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Jetsun Milarepa (Tibetan: རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རས་པ, Wylie: Rje-btsun Mi-la-ras-pa), (c. 1052 – c. 1135 CE) is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and poets. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu (Bka'-brgyud) school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Early life

Born in the village of Kya Ngatsa – also known as Tsa – in Gungthang province of western Tibet to a prosperous family he was named Mila Thöpaga (Thos-pa-dga'), which means "A joy to hear." His family name, Josay indicates noble descent, a sept of the Khyungpo or eagle clan.^[1]

Sorcery

When his father died, Milarepa's uncle and aunt took all of the family's wealth. At his mother's request, Milarepa left home and studied sorcery. While his aunt and uncle were having a party to celebrate the impending marriage of their son, he took his revenge by summoning a giant hail storm to demolish their house, killing 35 people, although the uncle and aunt are supposed to have survived. The villagers were angry and set off to look for Milarepa, but his mother got word to him, and he sent a hailstorm to destroy their crops.
Many of Milarepa's deeds took place in Chokyi Dronma's homeland and his life and songs were compiled by Tsangnyön Heruka, sponsored by Chokyi Dronma's brother, the Gungthang king Thri Namgyal De.^[2]
Milarepa later lamented his evil ways in his older years in conversation with Rechungpa: "In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future. To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you? I am an old man. Leave me in peace."^[3]

Supernatural running

Overlooking Pelgyeling Gompa at Milarepa's Cave, Tibet.

The nine storey tower that Milarepa single-handedly built, Sekhar Gutok, Lhodrag, Tibet.

According to the book Magic and Mystery in Tibet by French explorer Alexandra David-Néel, Milarepa boasted of having "crossed in a few days, a distance which, before his training in black magic, had taken him more than a month. He ascribes his gift to the clever control of 'internal air'." David-Néel comments "that at the house of the lama who taught him black magic there lived a trapa [monk] who was fleeter than a horse" using the same skill.^[4] After witnessing such a monk David-Néel described how:

"He seemed to lift himself from the ground.. His steps had the regularity of a pendulum.. ..the traveller seemed to be in a trance."^[5]

This esoteric skill, which is known as Lung-gom-pa^[6] ("Wind Meditation", lung = "wind", gom-pa = "meditation") in Tibet, is said to allow a practitioner to run at an extraordinary speed for days without stopping. This technique could be compared to that practised by the Kaihigyo Monks of Mt. Hiei in Kyoto, and of Shugendō, Japan.^[7]

Tutelage under Marpa

Knowing that his revenge was wrong, Milarepa (Then known by his boyhood name 'Fortuitous') set out to find a lama and was led to Marpa the Translator. Marpa proved a hard taskmaster. Before Marpa would teach Milarepa he had him build and then demolish three towers in turn. Milarepa was asked to build one final multi-story tower by Marpa at Lhodrag: this 11th century tower still stands.^[8] When Marpa still refused to teach Milarepa, he went to Marpa's wife, who took pity on him. She forged a letter of introduction to another teacher, Lama Ngogdun Chudor, under whose tutelage he practiced meditation. However when he was making no progress, he confessed the forgery and Ngogdun Chudor said that it was vain to hope for spiritual growth without the guru Marpa's approval.
Milarepa returned to Marpa, and was finally shown the spiritual teachings. Milarepa then left on his own, and after protracted diligence for 12 years he attained the state of Vajradhara (complete enlightenment). He then became known as Milarepa. 'Mila' is Tibetan for; 'great man', and 'repa' means; 'cotton clad one.' At the age of 45, he started to practice at Drakar Taso (White Rock Horse Tooth) cave – "Milarepa's Cave", as well as becoming a wandering teacher. Here, he subsisted on nettle tea, leading his skin to turn green with a waxy covering, hence the greenish color he is often depicted as having, in paintings and sculpture.

Monastery

Pyenzhangling Monastery, also known as Pelgye Ling Gompa, is a small Tibetan Buddhist monastery in a tiny village called Zhonggang, Tibet that is consecrated to Milarepa. It is built around the cave where he once lived. "It was destroyed but has now been rebuilt and decorated by Nepali artisans. This is one of many caves associated with Milarepa between Langtang and Jomolungma."^[9]

Lineage

Milarepa statue, Pango Chorten, Gyantse, Tibet.

Milarepa's lama was Marpa, a.k.a. 'Marpa the Translator,' whose guru (teacher or lama) was Naropa, who's guru was, in turn, Tilopa. Milarepa is famous for many of his songs and poems, in which he expresses the profundity of his realization of the dharma. His songs were impulsive, not contrived or written down, and came about while he was immersed in enlightened states of consciousness. His life represented the ideal Bodhisattva, and is a testament to the unity and interdependency of all Buddhist teachings – Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. He showed that poverty is not a deprivation, but rather a component of emancipating oneself from the constrictions of material possessions; that Tantric practice entails discipline and steadfast perseverance; that without resolute renunciation and uncompromising discipline, as Gautama Buddha Himself stressed, all the sublime ideas and dazzling images depicted in Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism are no better that magnificent illusions.^[10] He also had many disciples, male and female,^[11]^[12] including Rechung Dorje Drakpa (Ras-chung Rdo-rje Grags-pa) and Gampopa (Sgam-po-pa, Dhakpo Lhaje). His female disciples include Rechungma, Padarbum, Sahle Aui and Tsheringma.^[13] It was Gampopa who became Milarepa's spiritual successor, continued his lineage, and became one of the main lineage masters in Milarepa's tradition.

Unconventional

Milarepa lived around 950 years ago at the northern slopes of the Himalayas, overlooking the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra river basin, in what is now known as southern Tibet. Buddhism had come to those regions earlier, and it was mixed with the even-older Bon beliefs of that region. At that time, there were lamasaries at some locations regionally. Several years after Milarepa had attained spiritual enlightenment, his long-lost sister, Peta, found him at one of the secluded caves where he meditated alone. She was aghast at his very thin, greenish, and unclothed body, and pleaded with him to take nourishment, which he did. Peta gave him some cloth and thread to make clothes. She then pleaded with him to quit being such a recluse, and come down the mountain and join a monastery or lamasery. That way, he could wear proper clothes and obtain meals. He kindly rejected her suggestion, and described how such trappings of convention would restrict his spiritual development.

Gallery

Bhutanese painted thanka of Milarepa (1052-1135), Late 19th-early 20th century, Dhodeydrag Gonpa, Thimphu, Bhutan
Milarepa, Tempera on cotton, 21x30 cm, 2008 Otgonbayar Ershuu
Tibetan or Nepalese painted thanka of Milarepa, 19th century, mineral pigments and gold on cotton cloth